Awaiting
by Msz Thang
Summary: Kei Yosugara reflects on the Aldred van Envurio he can't forget while everyone else has lost hope. Oneshot. Post-series.


**I might do a longer story for Rust Blaster; lemme know if I should and if you liked this oneshot! It's a labor of love. Please review.**

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"Are you awake, Kei?" Kodachi Amakusa asked, peering into the silent room from the open doorway. When she didn't receive any answer from the white-haired boy, the dark beauty stepped farther into the room and approached the small bed in which he lie. She paused for a moment, staring at the young boy who gazed out the ajar window adjacent to the night table by the bed. She walked around the foot of the bed and swung open the window further, allowing a rush of air into the humble room.

Kei Yosugara exhaled weakly, not drawing his attention away from the elaborate bird house perched railing surrounding the landing outside the large window. One bird, a finch with a white body and a crimson head, pecked at the dry food and bounced around the miniature house, knocking the other birds around. Kei leered at the tiny yet spirited fowl, lips curled in a way they almost never do since a certain black-haired comrade left. Kodachi watched the frail boy with a small smile on her own face, reminding her of the day Kei had named the finch 'Al'.

"Ready for your walk?" She asked, dragging out a wheelchair from one of the closets by the door. Kei turned his head and eyed the wheelchair as he always did each morning as if he could make our its shape and color; for his friends' sakes, he pretended that he could see past arm's length away. She reached for his wrists and pulled him up into a seated position. He quietly complied with each action, adjusting himself when she lifted him into his wheelchair. She grinned proudly, having accomplished the task more efficiently than any time before. She nudged him out his room, through the hallway of the boys' dormitory, and outside leisurely.

It was their ritual, his teammates and he; the caramel maiden would fetch him for his morning stroll after Lydwine, known affectionately as Lydi, fed the boy his breakfast and bathed him; in the afternoon Faye would read him fiction books and take him out for another stroll through the school grounds if the weather permitted. Then Ren would give him his daily medicine via shots and large pills he could barely swallow half the time and perform more tests or administer yet another 'cure'. His day would end with everyone in his room, relaxing, playing games, and doing homework until he pretended to fall asleep and they would leave.

Kodachi pushed him along a winding path in the courtyard and up to a short willow tree on the edge of the school grounds; this tree had become their meeting place, the former Division 6 crew, which had been dissolved some 3 years before when the school last came under attack and they had last seen their leader, Aldred. Kei's froggy eyesight could barely make out the silhouettes of his other friends who awaited him excitedly by the tree.

"Morning, Kei!" Ren shouted, throwing his arms up in the air as the frail boy and Kodachi came closer. If Faye did not grab the short fifteen-year-old by the collar, he would've certain thrown himself onto their feeble friend and toppled them both over and onto the ground as he did last time they planned a surprise picnic for Kei. Kei gradually turns his head to the direction of the animated boy's voice; he smiled half-heartedly and nodded. Lydi and Faye said their usual subdued greetings to the sickly boy as Kodachi parked the chair at the base of the tree and sat down. They all formed a circle where Kei had been placed while he listened eagerly at their rustling around and sat on a wide picnic blanket Faye had unwrapped on the ground.

"You want a sandwich or some chips?" Faye said to the boy after the group had settled into lively conversation. Fei, as usual, sat there, partially listening, eyes glazed over and lips slightly parted in a relaxed yet forced expression. Fei shook his head 'no' and politely muttered a no thank you.

"What are you thinking about?" Lydi asked the boy, chewing on one of tje many sandwiches she had prepared for the group and their outing. She sat down next to his chair, admiring the designs and artwork the former Division 6 squad had drawn, painted, and constructed onto the wheelchair. All their initials and numerous quotes adorned the seat, some in messier hand writing than others. She glanced at the initials AvE carved sloppily in next to KY; she figured that Kei must've done it himself soon after they had redone the wheelchair with their art.

"Him," Kei breathed, lifting his head up so that the breeze could carry him upwards if just for a moment, release his burden, his strained and tired soul. Once the draft settled, the weight of the universe came crashing back down on Kei's shoulders and he sighed again, shoulders slouched over and eyes cast downward. The rest of the team fell silent at his response. Ren bit into his sandwich uneasily and Lydi clutched her arms, having abandoned her teddy bear the day Aldread van Envurio left them.

"I feel him sometimes," Kei said, "when I'm alone."

Faye and Kodachi eyes each other wearily as the boy spoke from under the low tree.; All of the Division 6 members missed their leader dearly, though one by one they had given up hoping that he would return to them years ago. That left Kei, desperate and alone in his belief that he would be reunited with his partner... that his life would find purpose again... that the stubborn boy who told him that he could call out to him would return. "You could have called out to me!"-The words were tattooed into Kei's most vivid memory reservoir-"You're not an object, are you?"

Years of cathedral living had taught Kei the exact opposite. He was a weapon, a tool, forged under purposeful hands to preserve humanity; he wasn't a young adolescent capable of feelings.. especially the sweltering yearning and devastating longing he felt for the raven who literally walked away from him while he was bleeding out on the ground with a poor excuse of a weapon, a replacement if you will, in his hand those distant 3 years ago. His body shouldn't have reacted when sharp teeth penetrated his virgin neck, draining from him not only his blood but also the mental walls he had build to protect himself from what precisely Aldred forced into his life as he drank from his once healthy body: fondness.

Kei held his hand up to his neck, where the scars of two tooth marks had long faded away yet the sensation of teeth piercing skin did not leave him; Some nights his neck would sear, thrusting him into wakefulness as he screamed in agony. The pain wasn't physical, but rather emotional.. almost spiritual It tormented him if anything to remind him of Aldred so fiercely and deeply that he would spend the rest of his night somewhere between sleep and consciousness thinking about his classmate. Once he couldn't deny his body the release it craved as he woke himself from a fairy tale like dream where Aldred had returned, forced Kei down onto his modest mattress in the middle of the neck and bit down so roughly into the boy's neck that he could barely breathe.

Kei had to reached into the night stand by the window for the lotion he formerly to apply to his wounds and apply it to his hardened erection before reliving himself over and over until he slipped back into the dream world he so loved. The next morning, when Lydwine arrived to bathe him, she ignored the dried semen caked in his shirt and boxers as she stripped him down and lowered him in the steaming bath water. She didn't even mention it to her fellow teammates who long suspected that the ailing boy was impassioned by their absent friend.

Ren tensed at Kei's words and said, "He isn't coming back. Forget him."

The bitterness and anger in his words did not go unnoticed by the rest of his comrades, who began to pick at their meals again. Kei glared at the boy, or where he suspected the boy to be sitting but gave up once he figured that he couldn't find him with his limited eyesight. And Ren has been nothing but a help to Kei, reliving some of his pain and desperately researching each day for a cure that Kei intrinsically knew would never arrive in his lifetime. The ancient magic that bound him to Alred was two strong to be broken; he believed that with every bone in his body. He couldn't explain it; he just knew. He had given most of his life to the raven already and was awaiting the day he'd give him the measly rest he had.

"'Don't give up before you've even started'," he whispered so quietly, he mouth barely moved as it curled into a wide smile. He quickly shifted his gaze from the ground to the sky, where the sun shone brightly but not bright enough to deter Kei. He blinked a few times but staring blankly at the sky through the branches of that young willow tree, where clouds passed, he was sure. The moment he closed his eyes, soft snores carried along the wind and down the path, to his room where the finch 'Al' ate his food nosily.

"And he waits," Kodachi whispered to her teammates, who nodded in agreement. Tragic, they all thought, that he would be waiting for the rest of his miserable life.


End file.
